Nursing Home Birthday Party

I joined a small community volunteers group in Hsin-tien three years ago. One of our jobs was to visit the Taipei Nursing Home to entertain the wheelchair ridden elderly every month for two hours. It had been a challenge for me ever since.

What could I do to change the moods of elderly? How could I involve as many elderly as possible? What kind of group activities would cheer up the elderly? What games would do good to rehabilitate the elderly for a little for a short period of time?

The first time I walked into the care center for the disabled elderly at the nursing home, I saw sad faces on the wheelchairs. Without too much of thinking, I tried my best to engage the elderly with various group games at once. It was such a sensation to see the sad faces turned into smiling faces. Shouldn't people feel happy more often regardless of the age? Shouldn't people feel contented when they walked on the last part of their life journey?

Two senior Toastmasters friends from Kitakyushu toastmasters joined us to bring joy to the elderly at the seasonal birthday party of nursing home. We sang one Japanese song "Akatonbo" and one English song "Amazing Grace" on stage of the big auditorium. We wowed every body by proving people were never too old to learn new tricks. We proved that people should not give up chance to entertain people to bring joy and to add color to life.

Being the first Toastmasters group of different nationalities to perform at the birthday party of the Nursing Home, we caught the attention from a big audience of 100 elderly. Old people can show up on stage. old people can sit in the audience. People can bring joy to people. People can be the source of delight and happiness if we believe in ourselves.